Milano Salone del Mobile 2014

Thursday we went to the Milan furniture and design expo. I could have spent all day in this place and maybe seen half of everything that was there. There was furniture displays kitchen displays and also displays of young designers that were really cool. I mostly walked around in the kitchen and gadgets side of things because I found that more interesting. We got a lot of free stuff from all the companies that were there. It was really cool to see all these new products that will be available in the coming year. This also pretty much set in stone the fact that I will never be able to afford the kitchen of my dreams-this show has introduced some pretty high standards of living!  In the afternoon, we went to Politecnico di Milano University to view some of the temporary installations for the upcoming World Expo 2015. We also visited some of the showrooms for the furniture designers that were present at the fair.

Milan day trip #2 – oh the things you will see during fashion week!

This week has gone by really fast.  As soon as we got back from Berlin Monday morning we had to jump right back into studio and finish our final analytiques for project 4.  This was a group project, and I worked with Emily and Bryan.  I think we worked very well as a group, and the end project was fantastic!

Thursday we took our second day trip to Milan with Guidi.  Luckily we had no rain or snow this time.  We started off by going to the Novecento museum, which is the futurist artists museum.  This ties into what we are doing in studio right now so it was very interesting.

Next we went to the Castello Sforzesco.  This was a really cool 14th century castle in the middle of the city.

Then we went to the Trianale Museum.  While we were at the Museum, there was a fashion event going on.  There were a ton of models and important people walking around and paparazzi everywhere. Some of the things these people were wearing was absolutely ridiculous. I wish I would have taken pictures!

On the way back to the train station we walked through a newer area of town called Porta Nuova, near the UniCredit building.  This area was filled with really cool modern architecture.

Friday night it the infamous Villa Party.  We’re all so excited that we can hardly focus.  We’ve already cleaned out all the furniture from studio and for the past two days Christina and Lucia, along with their husbands and families, have been cooking some amazing food for the party.  This whole villa smells amazing!  I’m super excited for a weekend off from traveling.  It will be really nice to just relax in the villa with everyone.

Ice Age: Clemson Edition-Milano day trip

Thursday we went on a day trip to Milan.  The forecast called for rain and snow and for the temperature to be in the mid 30s.  As soon as we came out of the first tunnel on the train ride from Genoa to Milan, it was snowing.  A little further down the tracks and there was already a few inches of snow on the ground.  As much as I would prefer it to be sunny and warm when we have to be outside all day, if were gonna have some kind of precipitation i would much rather it be snow.  Of course, once we arrived in Milan it was raining all day long.  There were some occasional snow flurries but nothing stuck and it always changed back over to rain.

Despite the shitty weather, I really enjoyed Milan.  It was one of the few large cities in Italy I haven’t been to before.  One of the really exciting parts of our trip was going to see the Duomo.  It is very different from other duomos I have been to such as in Florence, but it was equally beautiful in a very different way.  The Duomo in Milano took over 5 centuries to build which is just unbelievable.  They had to create a school that taught people how to sculpt, paint, and build in the style in which the building was started, so as to maintain its gothic style.  Despite the rain we were able to go onto the roof of the Duomo, which was absolutely unbelievable.  From that point you could really see all the detail in the sculptures decorating the exterior of the cathedral.

We also visited the Santa Maria delle Grazie church.  I didn’t know this until we were standing outside in the rain listening to Giuditta talk, but the original Last Supper painting is on display in the refectory of the church’s convent.  We didn’t get to go see it on this trip, but Judy promised to try to get us reservations for one of our other day trips to Milan.  Another amazing church we visited was Santa Maria presso San Satiro, which was a small church in the city center.  The story of the churches construction was really interesting.  It had been a small church that was remodeled during the 15th century.  There was not enough space to expand the church because it was already situated between preexisting buildings.  They were able to build out towards the street to create the bottom part of the ‘cross-shaped’ nave, but had no room to expand and build the upper part of the nave, towards the altar.  Architect and designer, Donato Bramante, created a perspective painting behind the altar to give the illusion that the church was actually in the typical cross plan.  Giuditta didn’t tell us that this was actually a painting until we had been in the church for around 5 minutes.  When she told us we were all shocked.  Then we walked down the aisle and to the right and only then could we really believe that the church didn’t extend past the side aisles.